The complete article “Craft Wins — Nudists Lose” by John L. Kyff, Jr., National Nudist Legal Coordinator, published in Bare In Mind, November 1988, reproduced in full from original scans with an introduction. Written after The Naturist Society abruptly dropped its appeal in Craft v. Hodel hours before oral argument before the First Circuit Court of Appeals, the article opens — before its dateline and before any statement of fact — with William Congreve’s line “Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned,” framing a documented political dispute as a fired employee’s personal vindictiveness. The introduction identifies the central factual problem with that framing: Kyff wrote that Craft “seemingly abruptly changed her mind” following her termination, though her open letter setting out her feminist objections in detail was addressed to Kyff and the entire Naturist Leadership Council on November 25, 1987, ten months before her employment ended. The article’s continuation pages state the substance the framing obscured — Craft’s objection to the American Sunbathing Association filing an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court supporting the striking down of a Massachusetts statute that criminalized photographing nude children, in Massachusetts v. Oakes. Craft documented this article’s republication in at least four separate publications; it prompted her formal retraction demand to Kyff of January 11, 1989. Photographic credit on the continuation page is to Leif Heilberg, named in the September 1988 Cape Cod supporters’ petition among photographers women in the movement were warned about. Part of the Nikki Craft Archival Project.

Keywords

Nikki Craft, John Kyff, John L. Kyff Jr., Bare In Mind, Craft v. Hodel, Lee Baxandall, The Naturist Society, Cape Cod National Seashore, National Nudist Legal Coordinator, Massachusetts v. Oakes, American Sunbathing Association, ASA, amicus brief, child pornography law, naturism, nudism, radical feminism, woman scorned, First Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Woodlock, Leif Heilberg, NCN v. Accomack County, 1988, primary source, movement press, feminist activism

Series

Primary Source Documents

License

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International). Scans of the underlying 1988 publication are reproduced for documentation, criticism, and historical research.

Creation date

Original article published November 1988. This documented edition compiled July 29, 2026.

Language

English

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